SIX-TO-ONE FIGHT AS CITY RUSHES FOR CANNABIS

City fund managers have displayed a healthy appetite for dope, by
stampeding for shares in Britain's only legal cannabis company, GW
Pharmaceuticals.

The Salisbury company, which is developing a cannabis-based treatment for
multiple sclerosis, announced yesterday that its flotation has been
over-subscribed by more than six times. Demand has been so strong that GW
has made extra shares available, increasing the proceeds of the placing
from UKP16m to UKP25m.

Chairman Geoffrey Guy, whose stake will be worth more than UKP40m, said:
"This is at the top end of our best expectations."

GW grows 15 tonnes of cannabis a year, on a secret plantation in southern
England. Its annual harvest could attract a street value of UKP65m, although
not all of GW's cannabis is suitable for producing a "high" among users.

The business, which is backed by the former GEC chairman Lord Weinstock,
has attracted a valuation of UKP175m. It is carrying out clinical trials for
a multiple sclerosis treatment, and has earlier-stage cannabis products for
cancer and rheumatoid arthritis.

The government has pledged to permit the use of cannabis-based
pharmaceuticals, as long as they are approved by the medicines control agency.

Analysts believe the market could be enormous. Julie Simmonds, an analyst
at Beeson Gregory, said: "We can assume that it probably works."

Proceeds from the flotation will fund larger scale plantations, clinical
trials and expansion into Europe and North America.